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A finance ministry official said there has been no decision regarding 2,000 rupee note production recently. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: Denying reports that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had stopped the production of Rs 2,000 currency notes, the finance ministry today said printing was planned according to the projected requirement.

“Printing of notes is planned as per the projected requirement. We have more than adequate notes of Rs 2,000 in the system with over 35% of notes by value in circulation being of Rs 2,000,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said on Twitter. He also said that there had been no decision regarding Rs 2,000 note production recently.

A media report had yesterday claimed the government had stopped the printing of the high-value currency note as it was being used for “hoarding, tax evasion and money laundering”. Another report, by PTI, had said the printing of the Rs 2,000 banknote, introduced post-demonetisation in November 2016, had been brought down to a minimum.

Immediately after the sudden decision to ban old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes by the government, the Reserve Bank of India had come out with the Rs 2,000 note along with a new look 500 rupee note as part of its remonetisation exercise.

According to RBI data, there were 3,285 million pieces of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation at the end of March 2017. A year later (on March 31, 2018), there was only a marginal increase in the number at 3,363 million pieces. Of the total currency in circulation amounting to Rs 18,037 billion at the end of March 2018, Rs 2000 notes accounted for 37.3 per cent, down from 50.2 per cent at the end of March 2017. The old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 bank notes that were scrapped in November 2016 accounted for around 86% of the total currency in circulation at the time.